Thousands drawn to Rock'n Rod Run

TEMECULA -- It was a car-lover's dream. Hundreds of classic cars
and hot rods -- from several vintage Chevrolet Camaros to a couple
of the original Mini Coopers and even a 1960 fire-engine red
Cadillac Coupe de Ville -- lined the streets of Old Town Temecula
on Saturday for the final day of the 20th annual Temecula Rock'n
Rod Run.

Organizers expected as many as 60,000 visitors over the two days
of the event, and by Saturday afternoon, several thousand were
milling about Old Town Front Street, looking at cars and doing a
little shopping.

Dozens of vendors hawked everything from jewelry to popcorn. And
while golden oldies were piped in on speakers set up throughout the
street, a tribute to music legends the Platters, the Fifth
Dimension and the Commodores went on inside The Stampede.

Cold temperatures, a little rain and even a brief -- but intense
-- hail storm early in the day couldn't keep the masses from coming
out for the event throughout the day.

Mark Bird drove his custom-built 1969 red Chevrolet Camaro from
Westminster to show it off during the rod run, which featured a
cruising run up and down Old Town Front Street on Friday and a
"Show & Shine" competition Saturday during which 75 trophies
were expected to be awarded at the end of the day. More than 700
cars had registered for the event.

Bird said that for he and his wife, this year's Rock'n Rod Run
was the eighth. The two go to a handful of events each year, he
said, and coming to Temecula has become a nice, regular
respite.

"It's a little two-day get-away," he said. "It's great."

Bird said he bought the Camaro in 1989 as a "project car" and
spent the next five years breaking it down and building it back up.
He's not quite sure how much money or time he spent on the car, he
said, because he worked on it whenever he could and he bought
whatever parts he decided it needed as he built it.

The final product, Bird said, ended up being a car that looks
like a vintage Camaro, but drives like a newer one. It has a modern
engine, he said, along with modern brakes and a modern overdrive
system.

Bird, a senior buyer for an Orange County manufacturing company,
said that building cars has become somewhat of a hobby. His latest
project cars include a 1969 Chevrolet Malibu and a concept car he
is developing.

The plan is to keep the cars, he said.

"Beyond the reality of my job, I work on my cars," Bird said. "I
don't build them to sell them."

While Bird answered questions from visitors about his car, David
and Kelly Leadford of Orange sat on a bench nearby and took a short
break from walking up and down Old Town Front Street and looking at
the different cars.

It was the first year in the many years they have been attending
the event that David Leadford hadn't brought his 1956 Chevrolet 210
sedan.

He didn't want to expose it to the weather, Leadford said. And
when the hail storm began, he said, he knew he had made the right
decision.

But still, it would have been nice to show off his car, he said,
at an event he has grown to appreciate.

"I like the atmosphere here," Leadford said. "The people are
nice and I like the old town atmosphere."